Talking to my Junior in HS daughter today about college, Army ROTC Scholarship stuff, etc. She asks me... what kind of cool jobs are there for women in the Army? I don't want to be like those two bimbo MPs in STRIPES.

She says she wants to either fly the kind of Helicopter that crashed into Osama bin Laden's compound or... she wants to be in a unit where they get to do demolitions and blow stuff up.

Unfortunately, my answer was, I think you can fly Helicopters all day long but... I believe blowing stuff up is "Closed to Women".

Does anybody know of a "get to blow stuff up" MOS/Job Field that is OPEN to Women?

Looks like both army and AF allow female EOD techs. Part of that lets you blow stuff up.

Just about all FA jobs are open to women now...on the officer side at least.

Link

[This message has been edited by Kyle98 (edited 3/20/2014 8:09a).]

The Army is opening all roles, in a specified order.

EN is up first, including previously-closed Sapper companies.

If you want more detailed information PM me, I'm not going to put out sensitive info on TA (especially when the source would be obvious and I'd get ****-canned)

Seems like as an officer, you only get to command people who blow stuff up. To do the actual blowing up, you have to be enlisted.

Hey, I generally get to fire a couple of rounds from the big guns during AT! But yeah, mostly I supervise the guys doing the blowing up.

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Does anybody know of a "get to blow stuff up" MOS/Job Field that is OPEN to Women?

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she could blow up balloons for the firing range

Blow stuff up:

Armor and Infantry- i suspect they will open sooner or later, probably two years from now

Combat Engineers- never seen a female combat engineer, but that does not mean they aren't out there. Regular engineer females are already out there

ADA- sort of blow stuff up, open to females now

FA- get to blow stuff up, but are not assigned to cannon units yet, but are in MLRS units, and can be FOs right now

Ordnance (EOD)- I have never seen a female EOD tech, but that does not mean they are not out there.

Attack Aviation- females already allowed

no body else gets to blow stuff up on a regular basis, at least on purpose.

Who knows what the future holds in the next few years.

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Seems like as an officer, you only get to command people who blow stuff up. To do the actual blowing up, you have to be enlisted.

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not true, i've personally blown up two IEDs with the wheels to my MRAP

AH-64 pilot. Fly and blow stuff up. End of thread.

[This message has been edited by Fly Army 97 (edited 3/20/2014 5:32p).]

Female MP on the SecFor for the Kunar ADT was killed in her turret by RPG in 2010 north of Asadabad. Female MP earned the Silver Star in Iraq in 2005.

The EOD Flight lead at the SW Asia base where I work is a female USAF MSG. She is top notch in my opinion.

Fly helos. I just took the new flight aptitude test for the Army and scored well; and changed my mind on not dropping a flight packet. Currently waiting on slots to come out in July/August for the Guard. You actually end up flying almost every week with the Guard to keep up hours, and there are full time slots available (just not that easy to get.)

It used to be a lot easier to get a slot in the Guard, but they are drying up quick. She can go in to ROTC for the Guard as well, with an aviation guarantee.

If she has any questions about being a female in the military, the Guard, the flight aptitude tests (I've taken Navy/Marine and Army,) or even flying as a UH-60 crew chief; I'd be happy to answer what I can, or find someone who can answer them.

Email in profile.

A female Army EOD tech I know recently set the Guinness world record for 1 mile in a bomb suit.

http://www.army.mil/article/112018/Soldier_breaks_world_record_in_bomb_suit_run/

Thanks for all the responses. My daughter has really enjoyed reading them. We're still tripping about the 1 mile run in a bomb suit though.

Everything will be open by the time your daughter is a sophomore. The first female Ranger will graduate with no media knowledge before the public knows that the Marine Corps is intentionally setting females up to fail to prove a point

I work at the Fires Center. Field Artillery is the way to go. I have seen a few Sapper females too.

Tango Mike, interested to know how I'm setting up women to fail. You've clearly got more info than I do, which is surprising, as I'm one of the functional test managers. Please advise and I'll adjust.

you and I both know that functional tests mean nothing after the data is published. what matters is how the new roles are implemented. the Army (or the Marine Corps) can do exhaustive physical standards tests (and are), but if the intent is not relayed...

The data comes from the tests, and by functional I'm referring to the specific combat role. How are we seeing them up for failure? I'm building the test right now, you clearly know something, I'd like to know before we get it signed off on .

My point is, you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to our effort, but chose to malign even our intentions. We don't want women to fail, we want to protect to integrity of combat power, just like the army.

[This message has been edited by Sempergigem (edited 3/24/2014 5:07p).]

You completely missed the point about data and implementation of concepts. Don't be so quick to defend what isn't the issue

[This message has been edited by Tango mike (edited 3/24/2014 5:25p).]

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before the public knows that the Marine Corps is intentionally setting females up to fail to prove a point

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Show me where and how.

[This message has been edited by SemperGigEm (edited 3/24/2014 6:46p).]

The Marines are intentionally setting up females to fail? How about the fact that the collective armed forces are permanently damaging females so that some so-called progressives can score political points? This entire thing is a complete joke and is 100% about winning votes and 0% about winning the nation's battles.

If the "point" that we are supposedly trying to prove is that forcing women into combat roles for political reasons weakens our combat power, then count me in.

How about we represent the incredibly strenuous conditions combat can present, collect quantifiable data, and go from there? The option exists to request waivers for MOSs...

SemperGigem,
What's the Marine Corps Infantry standard for a ruck march? In OCS we did 12 Miles in 4 hours with a combat load and 35 lbs ruck. I use OCS because it was the last time I trained like that with women. Of my class there were several women who were in great shape. They all maxed the PT test and then some. One one was able to easily pass that ruck march and most struggled to barely cross in time.

None were able to make the 3 hour/15 min mile mark expected in infantry units. That is a relatively easy standard when compared to the 100+ lbs an Infanryman carries on a combat patrol at 8000+ feet in Afghanistan. For many women that's well over 3/4 of their body weight. How are they supposed to perform in those conditions?

All great questions, and quantifiable tests. I'm the Arty guy, and I have similar questions about our field. A 155 HE shell weighs in right around 95 lbs. A battery 3 = 300 lbs of shells per gun downrange, in less than a minute. And that's nothing compared to sweep and zone, or continuous fire, etc. This is the easy stuff to test for.

Not sure how women can be in the infantry mentally. Physically - I know there are some who can hack it. Sociopaths might have no issue, but it requires some thick skin just being a regular female in the military. Add in the mental aspect and going against everything we are that screams "nuture;" and I'm not sure that there is anyone, other than sociopaths, who could hack it very long.

Stripes was an insult to the Military Police Corps. I was a MP from '70-'76, nothing funny about it, we laid our lives on the line everytime we went on duty domestic and foreign. A MP had a critical MOS, meaning they were to patrol a post like a city cop and go into combat.